How to Delete Elements from a Python List Using remove, pop, and del

In Python, there are three primary ways to delete elements from a list: remove , pop , and the del statement.

remove : deletes the first element that matches a given value. Example:

>> str = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 2, 6]
>>> str.remove(2)
>>> str
[1, 3, 4, 5, 2, 6]

pop : deletes an element by its index and returns the removed value. Example:

>> str = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
>>> removed = str.pop(1)  # returns 1
>>> str
[0, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
>>> str2 = ['abc', 'bcd', 'dce']
>>> str2.pop(2)
'dce'
>>> str2
['abc', 'bcd']

del : deletes elements by index, slice, or the entire variable. Examples:

>> str = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 2, 6]
>>> del str[1]
>>> str
[1, 3, 4, 5, 2, 6]
>>> str = [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
>>> del str[2:4]  # removes elements at positions 2 and 3
>>> str
[0, 1, 4, 5, 6]
>>> del str
>>> str
NameError: name 'str' is not defined

Note: del removes the reference (the variable name), not the underlying object; the object is reclaimed by Python’s garbage collector.

Alternative approach: create a new list that excludes unwanted values using tuple membership checks.

s1 = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
s2 = (2, 3, 5)
s3 = []
for i in s1:
    if i not in s2:
        s3.append(i)
print('s1_1:', s1)
s1 = s3
print('s2:', s2)
print('s3:', s3)
print('s1_2:', s1)